Darren smiled to nobody in particular. "Perfect." He straightened and faced the rest of our group. "That's how we'll beat them. All of our factions will charge – not just Combat.
"Restoration, those chariots all hold two riders. Each one of you will be paired with someone from Combat. You have two jobs: you will steer the cart and see that your partner is safe. The Combat apprentice will be busy leading the strike so if things go wrong it will be your job to turn the cart around and heal them when it is safe to do so.
"I want Alchemy to start preparing any airborne potions you can think of: liquid fire, fog, sludge, anything that can blind the enemy or help break down their defense. Make as many as you can and store those in flasks in each of your carts… Each of you will lead a second chariot strike behind the Restoration-Combat teams. Should things go wrong you will throw use those flasks to startle the enemy, and give the rest of us a chance to escape.
"Combat, you already know your role. Each one of you has practiced long castings since we arrived. I want you to use whatever long-range weapon you are most comfortable with. You are going to lead the assault and focus on the left side of the mentor's defense. Once we break it you will immediately seek out the mentor's leader together as a unit, cutting your way through with the sickle swords we've been provided."
For a moment there was absolute silence. I was incapable of doing anything but stare. Darren had plotted an entire battle in minutes. Jayson and Tyra were speechless. Even in our lessons mages were only required to think for their faction. It was the reason all the regiments had a knight as commander. A mage, traditionally, did not have the training to lead large numbers of men.
"We might actually win this," Ella murmured.
"Now, the first thing I need everyone to do is to find a partner for the chariots."
****
Master Byron was counting down from sixty – and we had ten seconds to start.
My twin readjusted the reigns of our chariot with a grumble. "Should have known she'd say no."
"You better stay focused," I warned. "If you are too busy staring at Ella and steer me into a mentor's javelin you will be very, very sorry."
"THREE."
"But Ronan-"
"TWO."
"He beat you in the first-year trials," I hissed. "If anyone can protect her it's-"
"ONE."
The chariots took off. Three rows of carts and horses took off across the sandy plain, trampling brush and dirt as we charged the leftmost enemy lines. Alex and I, along with the rest of the second year mentees, rode at the center of the formation. Fourth-years maintained our lead and the Alchemy apprentices covered the rear.
Though I didn't look I knew Darren was watching from the top of a southern butte behind us. As our leader, he needed to observe from a distance. Should something go wrong he would be safe from enemy fire. The prince could still shout commands using magic to amplify his voice, and if we needed him, he would join us.
As Darren had predicted, the mentors had prepared for a strike. Almost immediately I could identify Ian on the far right of their line, stuck between two fifth-years as they held formation. The Alchemy and Restoration mentors hid behind those of Combat. I could see their leader Caine at the very back of the defense, a black armband fluttering in the dry canyon wind.
The mentors weren't taking any chances. The mentees had been given an advantage with the chariots. Caine had known better than to tell his team to try and outrun our attack…
But he had also made a mistake by only utilizing his Combat apprentices to defend. The third - and fifth-years made up only ten against our thirty.
He was in for a surprise.
I launched into my long casting. Pulse racing, I attempted to block out everything but the sensation of drawing a bow to the back edge of my jaw. I tried to stifle the constant motion of the bumpy chariot as I locked eyes with the leftmost apprentice.
Narrowing my line of sight, I recognized the mentor as Lynn. I swallowed and picked the odd dent in her breastplate to focus on, squinting until it became clear, all else around it blurred.
Then I relaxed my casting's draw, letting the phantom strings slip past as my magicked arrow zipped across the clearing.
Two, three, four… I sent ten castings in the blink of an eye. The barrage continued all around me as Combat mentees targeted Lynn's defense.
At first our castings fell harmlessly, barely grazing the mentors' barrier. But then the portion near Lynn started to flicker, temporary lapses of a strange purple hue that looked like veins whenever a new casting collided against it.
As soon as we were three hundred feet away the Alchemy apprentices joined us, tossing out their fire flasks with a practiced finesse. I was at once grateful all factions – not just Combat - maintained such rigorous physical conditioning. If we hadn't, they would never have been able to lob such distances now.
The mentors' barrier emitted a loud, earth-shattering shriek. The left side began to crumble, a cloudy mass of gray and purple haze. It couldn't hold.
Our missiles began to land hits on the leftmost apprentices. I watched with a shudder as our new castings, including my own, began to hit their intended target: Lynn. Screams began to echo across the desert landscape.
There was a loud, panicked shout from Caine and then the mentors dropped their remaining defense and what little attacks they'd started to cast.
What were they doing?
"MENTEES FALL BACK!" Darren's panicked voice shook the canyon walls.
Alex jerked the reins to the side and I clutched our cart's railing as it began to swing wildly around.
Before we completed a full circle the ground beneath us crumbled and caved.
Mentees cried out in alarm as their carts tipped over and fell. Horses panicked and took off in every which direction. Riders were stranded. Mentee apprentices fought to find balance in the aftermath of the mentors' manmade quake.
"Alex, get up!" I grabbed my brother and attempted to drag him away from our splintered vehicle. When the ground broke it had capsized, and while I had managed to roll away unscathed Alex hadn't been quite so lucky.
My twin struggled to right himself, using my shoulder to stand while I guarded against potential attacks. In front of us I could see the rest of our team doing the same: Restoration was retreating to the butte while Combat mentees attempted to hold off the mentors' charge.
We were losing. The mentors had started to push forward with their own castings leading a counter assault. The mentees' first line of defense was dissolving. Fast.
In front of me Priscilla fell to the ground, surrounded by a pack of fifth-years.
"DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE MENTORS ON! FALL BACK, FALL BACK, FALL BACK! ALCHEMY, TOSS THOSE FLASKS NOW!"
"Let's get out of here," Alex wheezed. He didn't have to say it twice. I immediately took off at a sprint – only to realize too late how slowly my brother was following. There was something wrong with his leg. He wouldn't make it out on his own. I looked across the plain to the mentors just fifty yards behind us. The others were emerging from the fire our Alchemy apprentices had chucked, slightly worse for wear, but still formidable. One of the mentors was casting javelins at a handful of fleeing mentees.
I saw him spot Alex…
My twin saw my hesitation and shook his head. "Run, Ry."
I didn't budge.
The fifth-year cast out his spear. My brother ran limping, trying to dodge its magicked course.
I didn't have time to think. I raced forward and cast out a large gust of wind, just enough to knock the mentor's weapon off course. I swung Alex's arm over my left shoulder and began to run-walk as fast as I could.
Just then Ella appeared, coughing and sputtering through the smoke. As soon as she spotted my brother's leg she joined me, pulling Alex's other arm around her shoulder.
Then we took off.
We managed to make it to the butte. I wondered at our luck until the haze cleared and I saw Darren, Eve, and Ray casting d
efense as our remaining mentees scrambled to safety. They were keeping the mentors at bay.
As soon as we were close enough to hear without shouting Darren pointed to a narrow trail behind him. "There's a gulch just past this rock. Keep following the stream until you find the grotto. I surveyed the whole site from the butte. If you can get to the cave you should be safe, for now. We'll be five minutes behind you – I want to make sure we get every Combat mentee we can first."
I nodded quickly and continued down the path with my brother and friend. I could hear the shrieks of pain and explosions of castings gone awry coming from the edge of the field.
There wouldn't be many of us fighting for long.
****
It was a half-hour later when Darren reached the grotto, half-carrying an injured Jayson as Eve and Ray shielded his approach. Four more mentees had come in after my group, and there'd been eight present we arrived.
We were down to twenty. We'd lost eleven mentees in that first charge. Only one Combat fourth-year had made it back, gravely injured. We were not in good standing.
The prince quickly set to work preparing our next move. The first thing he did was assess our condition. There were four of us too injured to run – though the Restoration mentees we did have were attempting to fix that. We had nine left from Alchemy, five from Restoration, and only six from Combat. With the exception of Alchemy - who'd had the advantage of a rear escape - most of us were second-years. We had lost most of the older mentees in the first attack since they'd been leading the assault.
"From here on out every casting needs to count. I made a mistake ordering that foray with the chariots – Caine was too smart to fall for our tricks. We'll need to be much more careful now since we've lost one third of our team. The mentors already have such an advantage..." Darren ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "We are safe here for a bit. Eve and I cast a large boulder to block our entrance that should hold us in this narrow gulch for a while… But there are other ways in and I am sure the mentors have already started scouting the rest of the canyon for breaks in the rock."
"Are you sure they won't just try to break your boulder?" Ruth, the second-year Alchemy apprentice Ella, Alex, and I had befriended last year, spoke up. "The mentors have to know your casting won't hold forever – especially against their own magic."
"Caine is not going to sit around and wait," Jayson groaned. The fourth-year was huddled in the back of the cave, clutching his bleeding side as two second-year Restoration mentees attempted to treat it. The pained expression he wore made me squirm. "Darren is right – he's going to have at least some of his mentors scouting the gulch."
"We've got to do something," another fourth-year, Darla of Alchemy, said. "Before that barrier breaks and they trap us. We might have stood a chance in chariots but there is no way twenty of us can take on so many of them now. The mentors only lost one Combat mage, and she was a third-year. If we come across the mentors they will win in a matter of seconds."
"I think we should pick them off one-by-one."
Everyone's eyes flew to me. It was the first time I had spoken.
I forced myself to continue, uncomfortably aware of the attention – although this time at least it was not from Byron's insult. "You say we can't win… But you are wrong. We might be able to if we limit how many can enter the gulch at one time. It's how the northern regiment won Battle of Daggan's Peak thirty years ago." I had read all about it in the history scrolls during my first year at the Academy. I'd even cited it during my oral exam in an effort to impress the judges at the end-of-year trials.
"Ryiah is right." Ray's eyes met mine. "I read the same thing: most of the regiment's knights and mages were engaged in a patrol further north so the remaining soldiers were left to fend for themselves. They should have lost against the Caltothian knights but they ended up hiding in one of the old mining tunnels and picked off the enemy one by one since the passage only fit two men at a time."
A couple mentees nodded in agreement, but most of them still looked apprehensive.
"The gulch isn't a tunnel," a fourth-year spoke up. "It's just a very narrow valley with sandstone walls – it can still fit several mentors at once-"
"Yes, but that is only the entrance we came from – and our magic is blocking it." Darren was talking again. "If Caine sends scouts they will be forced to come around the southern side. The gulch is narrower there, and with so many dead ends it would be hard for them to know which one to take. If we can separate their scouts we should be able to pick them off more easily – as far as I know they haven't ascended the butte yet which means they won't have overhead knowledge of which route to take."
The tight pressure that had been building in my chest was starting to fall away. I was right. My plan could work.
Could it?
"How do you want us to do this, Darren?" Eve was staring at the prince's shoulder. I'd barely noticed it before but now I could see a huge gash in his linen shirt. The light fabric had burn marks and the exposed flesh underneath was a nasty shade of pink. One of the mentors must have used fire. I continued to stare at the burn, horrified.
My stomach rolled uncomfortably.
"Are you going to be sick?" Ella nudged me.
I swallowed the bile back and prayed my face wasn't as pale as it felt. "I'll manage."
Darren cleared his throat. "I want Restoration to stay here. All of you do your best to heal the injured party and anyone else we send back. There is no purpose in you risking safety now... Alchemy, I want you to guard the front entrance where Eve and I cast the boulder. It will be safer than patrolling, and all of you should have some experience with the sword in case the mentors are able to break it before we return. Jayson will stay with you – he's too injured to help Combat but at the very least he can keep watch.
"The rest of us will pick off mentor scouts from the southern entrance. We'll stay together until we can get a better idea of whom Caine is sending… It's a long shot, but if we can eliminate at least some of the Combat mentors we might just stand a chance."
"But what about you, Darren? Shouldn't you stay behind with the healers for that burn?"
"You're our leader – if you get caught it's over!"
Darren ignored the others' questions and then sighed. "I need to go with my faction. I would make Jayson too if he could walk. We are only second-years: if we come up against a fifth-year scout I need to know that we are giving it our best effort."
****
I descended the steep butte carefully. I was all too conscious of how risky it was too climb loose sandstone… but if Darren had done it then so could I. Someone had to, and thanks to my reputation for scaling a cliff during Combat's orientation last year I'd been the first choice now that our leader was injured.
When I reached my last foothold I jumped, landing lightly in the shallow canyon stream below. The rest of my year was waiting for me at its bank. Their expressions ranged from apprehension to anxiety.
"How many did you see?"
"Four. They were together but it looked like they were separating at the fork. One of them was Ian. I think another was Priscilla's mentor Bryce. They were headed toward a dead end. The other two were fifth-years and they were following this stream that leads to straight to our camp… I didn't see anyone else following, but it was hard to see past that crag."
"Alright. I want Eve, Ray, and Ella to take the two headed toward us; Ryiah and I are going to go after Ian and Bryce."
Our group exchanged nervous glances. This was it.
Ray turned to Darren. "Are you sure you'll be fine – maybe someone should switch?"
"You three have the fifth-years." The non-heir stiffened. "I am sure Ryiah and I will be able to take on two second-years, injuries and all."
As soon as we had parted ways and started down the trail I spoke up. "So what is our strategy?"
Darren's eyes met mine and then he hunched over, ribs shaking with laughter.
"What is so funny?" I demanded.
I stopped walking and grabbed him by his collar, careful to avoid his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said grinning down at me, "I just thought the plan was obvious."
"What are you talking about?" I was instantly suspicious. Did he expect me to take on two mentors all by myself? Why would that be hilarious? Unless he was looking forward to watching me get beat to a bloody pulp?
"Ian. He's the best third-year – despite the fact he jokes too much and can't pain cast."
"And?"
"And I want you to distract him while I get rid of Bryce."
"You take the weak one and leave me with Ian?" I glared at him. "Are you mad? You are the best second-year and the only one that would stand a chance against him!"
"Yes, but I would still lose to him, Ryiah. I've used up too much magic. You would too – if you were fighting him. But you are not going to fight him."
"So I'm just – what? The sacrificial bait?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Darren's eyes twinkled mischievously. "You are going to fake an injury. I am going to cause a distraction that gets Bryce away and you are going to convince Ian to come help you."
"Help me? He's a mentor, Darren! He's not on our team!"
"It doesn't matter." Now he was smirking. "Ian will help you anyway. That third-year has a blind spot where you are concerned. I am willing to take our chances on him falling for your little trap. I'll ambush him while he's distracted and then you and I will both take on Bryce together."
"Ian is not going to be fool enough to fall for that!"
"Do you have a better plan?" The prince's gaze fell to my mouth. "Or are you just going to stand here and argue?"
Two spots of red appeared on my cheeks. "You are asking me to fight dirty!"
"Stop being so self-righteous," the boy drawled, "and just say you'll do it."
"You arrogant, conceited…" I was at a loss for words.
The Black Mage: Apprentice Page 5
